David Granger leaving the Brickdam Police Station on Tuesday after speaking to the police in relation to the protesters who were detained during a street march
Partnership for National Unity (APNU) presidential candidate David Granger said results of the recent elections were not the change the coalition sought, but it at least provided a chance for them to make that change. He, however, warned that change cannot happen “if we go back to the way things were. There can be no change without a new spirit of service and a new spirit of sacrifice. We must resist the temptation to resort to the sort of partisanship that poisoned our politics for decades. We will progress as one nation, and as one people only within the framework of “inclusionary democracy”,” Granger said in an address to the nation released by his office on Wednesday.
Granger, whose supporters have been engaged in daily protest actions for the Guyana Elections Commission to release the Statements of Poll, said APNU does not accept that the recent electoral process was flawless.
“We have demanded that the Guyana Elections Commission presents all of the Statements of Poll (SOPs) of the elections for verification. We will continue to employ every legitimate means to ensure that GECOM fulfils this elementary obligation to the nation.”
GECOM on Tuesday said that it was releasing the statements to all parties and the Electoral Assistance Bureau. However, up to press time Wednesday none of the parties had received the documents.
“We iterate our commitment, also, to fulfill the promises we made to the Guyanese people. We shall pursue our legislative programme to ensure that laws are enacted to provide jobs for our youth, to provide relief from the burden of taxation, to alleviate the suffering of our people, to expose and root out corruption, and to eliminate discrimination and marginalisation,” Granger said.
He added that the elections results, when they are verified, must open doors of opportunity to promote prosperity and good governance.
“Those verified results must enable us to reclaim our self esteem and to reaffirm the fundamental truth – that we are, indeed, one people and one nation.”
Long lines
Speaking about Election Day, the former Guyana Defence Force commander said people waited for hours to vote, many for the first time in their lives.
“Lines of voters in large numbers stretched around schools, public buildings, and private residences. Guyanese, on the coastland and hinterland, town and country, believed that Elections 2011 would be different. They believed that their voices would express that difference and that their votes could make that difference. Young and old, rich and poor – Amerindians, Africans, East Indians, Chinese, Portuguese, people of mixed origin – sent a message to the world. Guyanese are not a motley collection of races.”We are not a geographical collection of ‘red’ and ‘green’ regions. We are one people and one nation.”
Granger noted that the elections coming after 19 years of the People’s Progressive Party rule, were a defining moment in our political history. “Change has come to Guyana. A Partnership for National Unity persuaded a significant proportion of the people to share its vision of ‘A Good Life for All Guyanese’.”
“The elections results have cleared the way for a new politics – the politics of ‘inclusionary democracy’. We must seize this opportunity to reaffirm the oneness of the diverse Guyanese family and reassert the paramountcy of national unity.”
Granger said APNU ran a campaign that drew its strength from ordinary working men and women and people of all classes.
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